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Saliva the Superhero

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April 6th, 2013March 28th, 2014

This week it’s a look at saliva with America’s funniest science writer, Mary Roach, author of Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Trail. The Sterns are at the Blue Scorcher Bakery Café in Astoria, Ore., and we learn which salts are really worth the money with salt merchant Mark Bitterman, author of Salted: A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral.

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Mary Roach, author of Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, shares what she discovered about the science of how we eat: saliva's superpowers, our second set of nostrils, and how we use our ears and nose to taste food.

Russ Parsons, author of How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table, shares the ABCs of artichokes -- from how to “squeak” them to test for freshness to how to harness the compound that makes them taste so sweet.